Deron Williams struggled to get going last night
BROOKLYN — The buzzer at the end of the third quarter sounded. Some fans at Barclays Center clapped, but mostly there was just silence.
Kind of like Deron Williams’ play.
The same Nets fans who couldn’t get enough of their team’s 106-89 blowout Game 1 victory were silenced at the offensive end thanks to intensity and attention to detail by the Chicago Bulls.
In stealing homecourt advantage with a 90-82 victory, the Bulls cut off the head of the snake. A gutty performance by Kirk Hinrich helped force Williams – the key to Brooklyn’s Game 1 win – into one of the worst playoff performances of his career.
Williams was 1-of-9 from the field, managing eight points. He did hand out 10 assists but never really got started or found any semblance of offensive rhythm for a variety of reasons.
“I think he took it to the hole a lot of times tonight, but they contested him better,” Nets coach P.J. Carlesimo said. “He didn’t get all the way to the rim as easily as he did two nights ago. Their interior defense was a lot better. They didn’t let him turn the corner.
“That’s why so many of his decisions were ‘Get the ball to Brook,’ because he drew two people on him and he involved other people. But obviously we need a lot more offense than a number of more people than we did tonight.”
Hinrich’s defensive effort, combined with excellent pick-and-roll hedges and rotations from the bigs, helped the Bulls keep the Nets out of the paint with much more consistency than their lackluster defensive effort on Saturday evening. Brooklyn finished with 30 points in the paint after ringing up 56 in Game 1, including a startling 40 in the first half.
“Kirky worky!” exclaimed an upbeat Joakim Noah, who offered 25 positive minutes despite a painful foot injury. “I’m so glad he’s back on this team because for me he really represents what Chicago Bulls basketball is all about. He got kneed really bad [in the thigh] in Game 1 and he was pretty hurt and to come out and play defense the way he played defense and to come out and run the team the way he ran the team, I’m really happy for him. When he’s on his game like that, we’re hard to beat.”
The beauty – or lack thereof – of the Bulls is that when their defense is on a string, all moving in unison to help, rotate and recover, Noah’s praise of Hinrich could easily have been said of Luol Deng, who also bounced back from a poor Game 1 to shut down Gerald Wallace while collecting 15 points, 10 boards and two blocks.
“He’s really the glue to the team and when you take him out, you can see that,” Bulls coach Tom Thibodeau said.
Or backup center Nazr Mohammed, who played excellent defense and knocked down three perimeter jumpers in 17 minutes.
“I thought Nazr gave us great effort. In 17 minutes, it was terrific and we needed it,” the coach said.